Cirrus: The Decadence of a Full Table at PVT
Cirrus sits inside a private members’ club, but to stop there would be to miss the point. Cirrus is located within PVT, a private club conceived around dining, culture, and community. What draws people back is not exclusivity for its own sake, but the sense that this is a restaurant built around how people actually want to dine now: generously, and with a clear respect for craft and conviviality.
“Guests can enjoy Cirrus in a way where, if they want to enjoy a dish solo, or prefer to order small plates or food for sharing, they can,” says Chef Patrick Ambrosio, one of PVT’s executive chefs.
The restaurant’s dining program is decidedly chef-led. Helmed by Ambrosio, who was formerly Chef Miko Calo’s sous chef and who worked under Joel Robuchon, and Chef Robby Goco, known for his restaurants Elaia, Cyma, and Souv! by Cyma, Cirrus offers Goco’s and Ambrosio’s points-of-view, analogous in their European profile but still remaining rather distinctive.
On Sundays is Ambrosio’s Sunday Roast, centered around an Australian Wagyu Sir Harry prime rib, dry-aged, seasoned, and roasted slowly until tender. Guests choose between the King’s Cut, a generous 1.2-inch slice meant for sharing, or the Petit Cut, portioned for one. The beef finds its complement in a plentiful selection of sides: beef tallow fried rice, deeply savory and rather indulgent; potato purée; and smoky pimentón mac and cheese. French bean casserole adds a vegetal pause, duck fat-roasted potatoes bring crispness and heft, and honey-and-orange glazed carrots introduce a note of sweetness that cuts through the richness of the meat. Together, they form a table that feels complete and generous—exactly what a Sunday roast is meant to be.
Running parallel to the roast is Cirrus’ seafood tower, available throughout the week and is always a celebratory touch to any dining experience. The wide selection spans cold and warm, raw and cooked: Hokkaido scallops are paired with truffle salsa, tiger prawns with a sharp yuzu cocktail sauce, and Irish Gallagher oysters with apple and vodka granita that keeps the brine in check. Poached lobster tails and Japanese spider crab claws, served with brown butter aioli, add weight and warmth, while dry-aged salmon and yellowtail sashimi close the circle, their depth of flavor underscoring Cirrus’ seriousness about seafood. Like the roast, the tower is designed for sharing, lingering, and return visits.
The à la carte menu is no slouch, either. Ambrosio can’t pinpoint a favorite, but will put forward the dry-aged trout with mirin beurre blanc. “We replace white wine with mirin, and then create a beurre monté,” he explains. “The trout is dry aged for roughly five to six days, then pan roasted with vegetable pearls, pickled onions, and pickled mangoes.”
PVT itself is known for a wide selection of excellent, dry-aged steak, from Japanese Wagyu, and Australian WagyuWagyuA Japanese beef breed celebrated for intense marbling that creates a buttery, melt-in-the-mouth texture, graded on a scale where A5 is the highest. Wagyu is a luxury dining staple prizedGo to Wagyu Glossary to US Prime bone-in ribeye, which are all aged for at least 45 days. “We’re pretty heavy on the seafood and beef,” he says.
During the week, Goco’s hearty tasting menu is replete with the Mediterranean flavors he is known for—Greek at its core, but filtered through a global pantry, contemporary technique, and a surprising helping of fun and youthfulness injected into a cuisine that is 4,000 years old.
Take, for example, his version of a Greek salad. It retains all the familiar elements—tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, Cretan dakos—but they arrive cut in a fine brunoise, recast for the language of fine dining. “We pureed the dakos, pouring watermelon gazpacho on top,” Goco says, adding yet another surprising technique to the dish. It is familiar and comforting, but refreshing on the palate as well as in ideation.
The salad is only a part of Goco’s menu, launching on February 16. It is sumptuous, filled with the classics like a luscious mezze platter that includes hummus, melitzanosalata, tarama, and tzatziki. But as expected, it isn’t afraid of fresh takes, like the traditional Greek ladolemono, which is a lemon and oil dressing, merged with a Spanish pilpil sauce. They balance each other well, the ladolemono cutting through the richness of pilpil and the redfish it is spooned over.
Another dish sure to be a hit is the crudo, which was inspired by Goco’s recent trip to Greece, where he observed an increasing appreciation for sashimi. Goco’s version is a trio of dry aged salmon, hamachi, and scallops, topped with bottarga, orange zest, and olive oil.
Lamb, of course, makes an appearance, pressed and seared, as well as moussaka made with aged WagyuWagyuA Japanese beef breed celebrated for intense marbling that creates a buttery, melt-in-the-mouth texture, graded on a scale where A5 is the highest. Wagyu is a luxury dining staple prizedGo to Wagyu Glossary beef, layered with mornay sauce that’s incredibly light and foamy, torched, then finished with a generous heap of kefalotiri. Dessert is a 1,000-Layer Milopita, a crisp version of a beloved Greek apple cake, a walnut sauce liberally poured over a slice in true Greek fashion.
“Cirrus is decadent,” says Goco. “If there’s beef, it’s WagyuWagyuA Japanese beef breed celebrated for intense marbling that creates a buttery, melt-in-the-mouth texture, graded on a scale where A5 is the highest. Wagyu is a luxury dining staple prizedGo to Wagyu Glossary. If it’s seafood, it’s cod. If there’s a reason for foie, there’s always foie.” Here, decadence is not a flourish but a governing principle—and it is carried through, plate by plate.
For more information, contact PVT Members Lounge at +63 906 450 7095 or email [email protected]